City approves bath salts ordinance

The state and federal governments already have begun to crack down on the use and distribution of synthetic psychotropic drugs, more commonly known on the streets as bath salts. The city of Canyon Lake is going a step further with the adoption of an ordinance prohibiting the sale and distribution of those compounds and their derivatives, which have proven more difficult to police.

“The problem with these synthetic drugs is when they set a state or federal law, they basically identify particular substances,” Riverside County sheriff’s Capt. John Hill said. “With these substances, we have some pretty imaginative chemists these days that can change those molecules and change those chemical compounds and come up with a whole new substance that the state and federal law no longer applies to.

“That’s why this will be beneficial to us to enact an ordinance in Canyon Lake to keep our businesses from distributing these items. These items are dangerous and they have no legitimate medicinal purpose.”

Bath salts are designer drugs packaged in plastic pouches under various brand names. They are are often snorted, smoked or put into a solution and injected into veins. Their affects -- like those of LSD, cocaine and methamphetamines -- include impaired perception of reality, reduced motor control, delusions, paranoia, suicidal thoughts, seizures and panic attacks, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The derivatives -- which can also increase heart rates and can lead to heart attacks and strokes -- were often sold over the Internet, in convenience stores and in head shops as a “legal” alternative to similar illicit drugs until Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in October 2011 that made it a misdemeanor to distribute key chemical compounds used to make designer drugs in California.

President Barack Obama followed suit in July when he signed federal legislation banning synthetic drugs, and a number of California cities -- including Los Angeles, El Cajon, Adelanto and now Canyon Lake -- have penned broad ordinances that ban the production and distribution of as many variations of the chemical compounds as possible at local businesses.

Locally, authorities have fielded complaints that the Canyon Lake Smoke Shop has sold these bath salts -- not to be confused with Bath & Body Works’ Epsom salts -- according to a staff report to the City Council.

Hill added that the Sheriff’s Department’s drug task force is still investigating those complaints.

“We found things that were possible and we are checking those chemicals via sources with the federal government,” Hill said.

Smoke shop owner Nathan Sigafoos said he can’t imagine what an investigation could turn up. He confirmed he received a letter from the Police Department and a visit from officers a few months ago that he said did not lead him to believe his shop -- which sells various tobacco products and water pipes -- remained under any kind of scrutiny.

Sigafoos said the shop does sell kratom -- leaves or powder from tropical trees in Thailand that is a stimulant when used in low doses and a sedative in strong doses -- but it is legal in the United States, although it is listed on the DEA’s list of drugs and chemicals of concern.